Deliberate production of ignorance, persecution of the transgender community and the Value-Free Ideal of Science in Trump’s America
[Originally posted on Substack on July 2, 2025]
This past semester I had a class on Science and Society, where we had discussions about social influences in philosophy of science, and mainly how feminist epistemology challenges the Value-Free Ideal. I decided to do my final paper for it on the executive orders passed earlier this year by current president Donald Trump targeting the transgender population, and how these biased and bigoted policies influenced scientific research, which is supposed to be independent and impartial.
Alas, this paper was failed since, according to my professor, it was good but fits more as a political pamphlet than a philosophical paper. While I’ll be writing a different essay as a re-exam, I thought that this political pamphlet would find a good home here. I hope you enjoy.
Introduction
Ten years ago, the United States Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage nationwide. At the time, this ruling was regarded as a significant achievement in the long and arduous struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights. It was widely perceived as a turning point towards broader equality. Few, if any, could have predicted that within a single decade the same country would experience a sweeping and aggressive campaign to undermine those very rights. America, often self-described as the land of the free, now finds itself at a crossroads, where individual liberty is being selectively redefined.
Today, LGBTQIA+ people in the United States, and especially transgender individuals, are experiencing an aggressive and coordinated rollback of their rights. According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, as of 2025, there are 732 active bills across state and federal levels that target transgender individuals. These bills aim to restrict access to essential healthcare, limit participation in public life, erase legal recognition, and undermine the ability to exist freely in educational, professional, and social spaces (Trans Legislation Tracker, 2025). This legislative assault is not happening in a vacuum. It is being reinforced by sweeping administrative changes at the federal level that eliminate public data, censor research, and limit institutional support for LGBTQIA+ communities. Not only that, but its ideological grasp is also bleeding into federal research institutes, with the retraction of papers and blocking of funds.
On January 31 of this year, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with other federal agencies, deleted or altered over 8,000 web pages and approximately 3,000 datasets. Many of these removals affected health information related to LGBTQIA+ people, particularly transgender individuals. These actions not only obscure the realities faced by marginalised populations but also undermine public health research, policymaking, and access to evidence-based care. This erasure is part of a broader political effort to suppress knowledge and reshape science to reflect a narrow ideological agenda.
The Value-Free Ideal in science maintains that scientific inquiry should be guided solely by epistemic values such as accuracy, consistency, and empirical adequacy, while non-epistemic values, including political, moral, or cultural considerations, should remain the domain of policymakers. However, this division collapses when policymakers themselves are guided not by empirical evidence or the public good, but by rigid ideology and discriminatory intent. In such a context, the insistence on neutrality becomes not a safeguard for objectivity but a cover for complicity. There can be no neutrality in the face of injustice. When science is forced to conform to ideological demands, it loses its credibility, its autonomy, and its ability to serve the public.
In this essay, I will discuss the historical persecution of the LGBTQIA+ community and its access to healthcare, contextualise it within the contemporary discussions around the deliberate production of ignorance in science, and outline the current presidential policies put into place in the first semester of the second Trump presidency. Through this analysis, I aim to question whether science can or should remain value-free in the face of ideological interference and to contribute to an ongoing discussion about the responsibilities of science in a time of rising authoritarianism.
Historical Persecution of Queer People and the Deliberate Production of Ignorance
The LGBTQIA+ community has long been subjected to state-sanctioned violence, scientific pathologisation, and systemic marginalisation. This history reveals an ongoing pattern in which non-normative sexual and gender identities are controlled, erased, or vilified through political, medical, and epistemological means. From the destruction of early gender research in Nazi Germany to the deadly negligence witnessed during the AIDS crisis, and most recently to the political attacks during the second Trump administration, these events illustrate how ignorance and misinformation have been strategically mobilised to justify and facilitate persecution.
During the Weimar Republic, Germany witnessed the emergence of one of the earliest gay rights movements. The sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee) in the late 19th century to advocate for the rights of sexual minorities, including those who would today be recognised as transgender individuals. Hirschfeld later established the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in 1919, which became a major centre for pioneering research on homosexuality, transgender experiences, and intersex conditions. The institute also provided medical care and social support for sexual and gender minorities. However, this progressive momentum was violently disrupted by the Nazi regime. On 6 May 1933, Nazi youth groups raided the institute on Adolf Hitler’s orders. Days later, the library’s contents were burned in Berlin’s Bebelplatz Square, along with thousands of other volumes deemed “un-German” (Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, 2019). This was not only an act of cultural erasure but a symbolic obliteration of scientific and human recognition.
In the 1980s, the AIDS crisis offered a clear example of how institutionalised ignorance results in real, measurable harm. Despite the epidemic’s devastating impact on the LGBTQIA+ population, the Reagan administration failed to act in a timely or adequate manner. The lack of funding for medical research, delays in public education campaigns, and general political indifference cannot be understood in isolation from the homophobic and racist ideologies that shaped public discourse at the time. This form of “wilful ignorance” reveals whose lives are deemed unworthy of protection and which populations are structurally silenced (Tuana, 2006).
The medical establishment also bears responsibility for the marginalisation of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Until 1973, homosexuality was officially classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. This institutional labelling enabled a range of discriminatory practices, from forced treatments to social exclusion. The exclusion of queer and transgender health concerns from medical education and research agendas exemplifies “epistemic neglect”, a process in which entire fields of knowledge are omitted not due to oversight but as a result of cultural and institutional bias (Schiebinger, 2004)
By tracing history, we can see that this pattern of repression is inseparable from the production and maintenance of ignorance. The denial of medical treatment, the destruction of knowledge repositories, and the proliferation of ideologically charged policies have produced systemic voids in both public understanding and institutional response. Such knowledge gaps are not accidental, they are politically constructed to preserve social hierarchies and exclude marginalised groups from legitimacy. These absences of knowledge are therefore not neutral; they serve as instruments of control and social ordering (Tuana, 2006).
Ignorance can be socially managed, institutionally supported, and structurally maintained. Educational systems, government policies, and even academic disciplines can become mechanisms through which certain forms of ignorance are produced and perpetuated. Elizabeth Spelman refers to this process as “managed ignorance,” wherein particular topics or communities are systematically omitted from public discourse and policy consideration (Sullivan & Tuana, 2007).
Science and Queerness in Trump’s America
At the time of the conclusion of this essay, President Donald Trump had issued a total of 157 executive orders since his inauguration on January 20, 2025. This amounts to an average of 1.13 executive orders per day. The volume and speed of these orders are unprecedented in modern presidential history, drawing concern from legal scholars, civil rights groups, and members of Congress. Many of these directives have sought to reshape domestic policy, science governance, civil rights protections, and international agreements. Several have already become the subject of legal challenges, with multiple federal courts intervening to block or suspend their implementation on constitutional grounds.
Executive orders are formal, legally binding instructions issued by the President of the United States to federal administrative agencies. They derive their authority from either the U.S. Constitution or statutes delegated by Congress. Executive orders do not require congressional approval and are typically used to direct the operations of the federal government. Once issued, these orders remain in force until they are revoked by the President, overturned by a subsequent administration, deemed unconstitutional by the judiciary, or expire based on conditions specified within the order.
Besides the orders listed below regarding the LGBTQIA+ community and science, Trump also signed orders lifting vaccine mandates for military personnel and public-school matriculation, as well as the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organisation and the Paris Agreement.
Executive Orders Targeting the LGBTQIA+ Community
Executive Order 14168, titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth," was issued on January 20, 2025. It directed all federal agencies to define “sex” strictly as biological male or female and prohibited the use of terms such as "transgender," "nonbinary," and "gender identity" in official documentation and research outputs. Following this order, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was instructed to retract or suspend publication of scientific papers that included such terms. Multiple manuscripts on transgender health, youth well-being, and LGBT epidemiology were either removed from peer-review processes or heavily edited, disrupting years of data collection and public health tracking (Them, 2025). These actions impeded the development of medical guidelines and erased vital health surveillance data used by hospitals and public agencies.
Executive Order 14183, signed on January 27, 2025, reinstated a prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military. Although a federal court initially blocked the order, the Supreme Court allowed it to go into effect pending appeal, affecting thousands of active-duty personnel (AP News, 2025).
Executive Order 14187, titled "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," was issued one day later on January 28. It classified gender-affirming care for minors, including hormone blockers and supportive therapies, as abusive. The Department of Health and Human Services was directed to halt all funding and partnerships with institutions offering or researching such care. As a result, several hospitals suspended treatment for transgender youth, fearing loss of funding or legal consequences. Numerous universities, reliant on federal grants, paused ongoing clinical studies related to transgender health, and the National Institutes of Health cancelled or reduced funding for over 300 projects focusing on LGBT and HIV-related research (Them, 2025).
Executive Order 14190, "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling," was enacted on January 29, 2025. It banned the discussion or teaching of “gender ideology” and LGBT topics in public schools. Educators risked investigations or criminal penalties for acknowledging a student’s gender identity or using their preferred pronouns. Public broadcasters, such as PBS, removed educational content related to LGBT history, including lessons about the Stonewall uprising. Additionally, diversity and inclusion offices across school systems were shut down in compliance with the order (Them, 2025).
Finally, Executive Order 14201, issued on February 5, 2025, directed the Department of Education to enforce Title IX in a way that explicitly barred transgender girls and women from participating in female sports teams. Institutions that failed to comply faced the loss of federal education funding. This led national organisations, such as the NCAA, to revise or revoke their transgender inclusion policies, reducing athletic opportunities for transgender youth and students (Them, 2025).
Executive Orders Targeting Science
The Trump administration also issued a series of executive orders that, while couched in language of scientific neutrality and national interest, have significantly disrupted the autonomy and integrity of federally funded scientific research. Closer examination of the documents reveals that their vague wording allows for the imposition of ideological agendas and the defunding of research that does not align with the administration's political goals.
Executive Order 14303, titled “Restoring Gold Standard Science,” requires federal agencies to eliminate policies introduced after January 2021 that are deemed to introduce bias or ideology into scientific decision-making. It calls for standards such as reproducibility, transparency, and impartial peer review. While these are traditionally positive benchmarks, the order also demands the exclusion of what it calls “non-epistemic values,” including efforts related to equity, inclusion, or public engagement in science (Executive Order No. 14303, 2025). The language appears neutral, but its vagueness creates space for political interpretation of what constitutes “ideological science”, “dissenting viewpoints” and “alternative scientific opinions”. In practice, this has led to the revision or removal of scientific policies and research projects associated with gender studies, climate science, and social epidemiology, while also protecting pseudoscientific beliefs and debunked, racist and sexist ideals.
Executive Order 14155 directed the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), citing the claim that WHO had become politicised and untrustworthy. This action cut off U.S. support for global health surveillance and collaboration during ongoing threats such as emerging pandemics. The decision not only isolates the United States from coordinated international responses but also eliminates access to shared data crucial for research in epidemiology and public health (Winston & Strawn LLP, 2025).
These executive orders represent an aggressive rollback of civil rights for LGBT individuals and a suppression of scientific and educational discourse on gender diversity. They imposed legal and financial restrictions on research institutions, undermined public health initiatives, and sought to erase transgender identities from federal recognition and public life. The CDC's forced retractions and the National Institutes of Health’s blocked grants illustrate the extent to which political ideology was allowed to override scientific integrity and medical ethics.
Other Effects on Federal Research Institutes
Besides the retraction of papers from the CDC and the cancelled studies in the NIH, other federal scientific institutions also suffered from the influence of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump. The orders have restructured not only what research is permissible under federal guidelines but also what kinds of questions can be asked, what terminology can be used, and who is considered legitimate within the scientific community.
One particularly revealing example comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a primary agency responsible for funding basic scientific research in the United States. In response to the administration’s directives, the NSF compiled an internal list of “flagged terms”, words and phrases that, if included in research proposals, publications, or related materials, would trigger further scrutiny and review. Among these flagged terms are “female,” “disability,” “diversity,” and “LGBT.” This internal review process was created to align with Executive Order 14151, which eliminated federal support for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs. Though not officially publicised, leaks from inside the NSF confirmed that projects flagged under these terms face delayed reviews, heightened administrative oversight, and, in many cases, outright rejection. This practice distorts the research landscape by quietly shifting the boundaries of what can be funded and, therefore, what kind of science is even possible.
On January 28, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order to freeze all federal grants, loans, and aid while recipients underwent a sweeping political review. According to the directive, the Office of Management and Budget was tasked with evaluating whether federal funds were being used to "advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies" (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2025). This freeze affected not only public universities and health research centres, but also environmental agencies, technology consortia, and local institutions that depend on federal funding for basic operations. The language used in the order was intentionally broad and ideologically charged, allowing the administration to wield financial leverage over scientific and educational institutions while claiming to root out bias and misuse of public resources.
In addition to the funding freeze, Trump has repeatedly threatened universities with complete defunding if they do not dismantle their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. These threats, though politically motivated, have material consequences. Institutions that have resisted pressure to abandon DEI initiatives face stalled grants, terminated contracts, and intensified audits.
These executive actions reveal the extent to which scientific freedom and institutional autonomy are under siege. The impact is not confined to a handful of controversial studies or politically sensitive fields. Instead, the entire infrastructure of federally supported research is being reshaped to align with a narrow political agenda, one that privileges ideological conformity over academic rigour. In Trump’s America, the integrity of science is compromised not only by what is being researched but by the deliberate production of ignorance.
On Scapegoating and Fearmongering
There is a growing body of opinion, supported by both historical precedent and current evidence, that the intensifying attacks on the transgender and immigrant communities function as calculated forms of scapegoating. These attacks do not emerge in isolation, nor are they primarily about the issues they claim to address. Rather, they serve a political and economic purpose: to create a visible and vulnerable target onto which fear and frustration can be projected. By framing transgender individuals and immigrants as threats to national identity, public safety, or traditional values, politicians redirect public attention away from the material conditions affecting their constituents. When a senator or councilperson denounces these communities as dangerous or disruptive, they are often doing so at the same time they are voting on legislation that weakens labour protections, cuts public services, or delivers tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. The scapegoating narrative allows these actions to proceed largely unchallenged, masked by cultural conflict and moral panic.
This political tactic is not new. Historically, marginalised groups have often been used as convenient distractions to consolidate power, protect elite interests, and weaken public solidarity. What is particularly insidious in the current climate is how this scapegoating is not limited to campaign rhetoric or conservative think tanks. It has become embedded in legislative agendas, media discourse, and public policy at every level of government. Transgender people have become the target of hundreds of bills seeking to restrict their access to healthcare, education, and public life. Meanwhile, the corporations and donors funding the politicians behind these bills continue to benefit from deregulation, labour suppression, and public disinvestment. In this way, the culture war serves as a smokescreen for class war.
Outside of formal politics, the dehumanisation of transgender people has also been accelerated by the rise of the trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) movement. Though it identifies itself as a feminist project, this movement is rooted in essentialist and exclusionary ideologies that position transgender identities, particularly those of trans women, as illegitimate or threatening. Over the past decade, TERF rhetoric has gained unprecedented visibility and influence, particularly through the support of high-profile public figures. One of the most notable among them is J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, whose statements have had a global cultural impact.
The convergence of political scapegoating and cultural transphobia reveals a coordinated strategy: to divide the public through fear, dehumanisation, and manufactured controversy, all while advancing policies that ultimately harm the very populations being mobilised against trans rights. These efforts are not about protecting children, safeguarding women, or preserving freedom of speech. They are about controlling narratives, consolidating power, and dismantling systems of care and accountability. Recognising this is essential if we are to understand the broader ideological architecture that sustains transphobia in both politics and culture.
Conclusion
It’s then clear that the current American administration is not afraid of pushing its ideological beliefs and agendas into legislation, affecting not only the communities it’s using as scapegoats but also interfering with the integrity of scientific research and institutions. The deliberate production of ignorance and persecution of the LGBTQIA+ community is not only a human rights concern, but it’s another example as to why the Value-Free Ideal does not hold in the real world, where policymakers can weaponise it for personal gain.
The executive orders discussed throughout this essay demonstrate that science is not being protected from politics but rather is being directly manipulated by it. These policies are not isolated actions. They are part of a coherent political strategy that relies on the deliberate production of ignorance to serve ideological and economic goals.
The systematic targeting of transgender individuals through legislation and the restriction of research into gender, sexuality, disability, and race-based disparities is a manifestation of what feminist epistemologists have long described as the intersection of power and knowledge. Scholars have argued that science has never been free of values, and that the pretence of neutrality often conceals whose interests are being served by dominant narratives. The Value-Free Ideal ignores the fact that the questions we ask, the language we use, and the communities we centre or ignore are all shaped by social and political forces. In the context of a government openly hostile to gender diversity and public accountability, the insistence on value neutrality becomes a mechanism for avoiding responsibility, even as political actors openly distort or suppress knowledge for strategic ends.
Epistemologies of ignorance, as developed by scholars like Charles Mills and Shannon Sullivan, help explain how this suppression functions not merely through censorship or defunding, but through the institutional cultivation of not knowing. When the CDC retracts papers, when grant proposals are flagged for containing the word “female” or “LGBT,” and when universities are threatened for acknowledging structural inequality, ignorance is not a byproduct: it is the intended outcome. It is a tool used to render invisible those whose lives and needs are deemed politically inconvenient. These forms of ignorance are not random gaps in understanding; they are maintained, enforced, and weaponised by those in power to protect existing hierarchies.
In this climate, the responsibilities of science cannot be limited to methodological rigour or peer-reviewed neutrality. Scientists, researchers, and academic institutions must confront the ethical dimensions of their work and the political realities shaping their fields. It is not enough to claim objectivity while evidence is being erased and entire communities are being dehumanised. Scientific institutions must actively resist the manipulation of their work for oppressive purposes, speak out against policies that undermine inquiry and inclusion, and protect the integrity of knowledge production in times of authoritarian threat.
What is at stake is not only the future of scientific integrity but also the democratic foundation that allows science to flourish as a public good. The targeted erasure of data, the ideological gatekeeping of research funding, and the dehumanisation of marginalised populations all signal a broader attempt to control reality itself, to dictate not only what can be done, but what can be known. In the face of such threats, science must reject complicity in the name of neutrality. It must instead embrace its public responsibility, defend those whose lives depend on truthful knowledge, and stand firm against the forces that seek to dismantle both evidence and justice.
References
U.S. Office of Management and Budget/Executive Office of the President. (2025). Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs. Matthew J. Vaeth. Washington, D.C. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/M-25-13-Temporary-Pause-to-Review-Agency-Grant-Loan-and-Other-Financial-Assistance-Programs.pdf
Exec. Order No. 14151, 90 Fed. Reg. 8339 (January 20, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-29/pdf/2025-01953.pdf
Exec. Order No. 14155, 90 Fed. Reg. 8361 (January 20, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-29/pdf/2025-01957.pdf
Exec. Order No. 14168, 90 Fed. Reg. 8615 (January 20, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-30/pdf/2025-02090.pdf
Exec. Order No. 14183, 90 Fed. Reg. 8757 (January 27, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-02-03/pdf/2025-02178.pdf
Exec. Order No. 14187, 90 Fed. Reg. 8771 (January 28, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-02-03/pdf/2025-02194.pdf
Exec. Order No. 14190, 90 Fed. Reg. 8853 (January 29, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-02-03/pdf/2025-02232.pdf
Exec. Order. No. 14201, 90 Fed. Reg. 9279 (February 5, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-02-11/pdf/2025-02513.pdf
Exec. Order. No. 14303, 90 Fed. Reg. 22601 (May 29, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-05-29/pdf/2025-09802.pdf
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. (2019). 6 May 1933: Looting of the Institute of Sexology. https://hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/
Schiebinger, L. (2004). Feminist history of colonial science. Hypatia, 19(1).
Sullivan, S., & Tuana, N. (2007). Race and epistemologies of ignorance. SUNY Press.
Tuana, N. (2006). The speculum of ignorance: The women’s health movement and epistemologies of ignorance. Hypatia, 21(3).
AP News. (2025, February). Judge blocks administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/6367d501717f1388677e128af277fe26
Them. (2025, February). CDC Orders Retraction of Research So Papers Can Be Reviewed for "Transgender" and Other "Forbidden Terms". Them. https://www.them.us/story/trump-cdc-orders-retraction-research-reviewed-transgender-forbidden-terms